[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.'He told me to mind my own business and tell you to mind yours.He says he is aware you consorted with outlaws and intends reporting it to a higher authority.'De Wolfe gave a humourless laugh.'Higher authority? I suppose he means that traitor Prince John.I doubt he'll do that, or the Chief Justiciar and his justices will come down harder on him than ever.'Matilda was in a difficult position: although her former loyalty to her brother had been whittled down to almost nothing, she was afraid that any worsening of his position might cost him his life.'I pray daily to God in Heaven that he would just retire to his manors and lead a quiet life.' Her voice quavered a little.John felt sorry for her, a strange feeling that beset him every so often.'If he just returns this manor to the rightful owner and cuts himself adrift from Pomeroy, then he might survive yet another fiasco,' he said gently, though he was not at all sure that the king's judges would agree with him.When he had finished his meal, he went back to the hearth with his wife and they sat silently for a while.Then he told her again about Hubert Waiter's provisional royal pardon for the outlaws and Matilda brightened up.'Will you let me tell Lady Joan the good news?' she asked.'I have befriended her well since you left and would like to be the bearer of such welcome tidings.'John nodded, pleased to have something to lift her from her despondency.'It means that Nicholas de Arundell can now leave the moor and come to live with his wife,' he said.'He cannot yet return to his manor until the justices have deliberated, but no doubt her cousin will find room for him in that large house.'Matilda preened herself at the prospect of meeting another Crusading knight, who would no doubt be grateful for her support to his wife.Soon, a dog-tired John announced that he would seek his bed when he had finished the jug of wine.Even the prospect of walking Brutus down to Idle Lane failed to seduce him from the blessed prospect of sleep.As he wearily took his saddle-bruised body up to the solar, the ever-cautious de Wolfe thought that things seemed to be going so well that maybe they might be going a little too well – perhaps Fate still had something unexpected in store for them all.As the coroner half expected, the next morning brought a multitude of problems that had accumulated during his absence.The faithful Thomas was genuinely delighted to see him when he climbed to the lofty garret in the gatehouse, then reported on a string of cases that had been either dealt with or shelved during the past two weeks.Most were routine, and a number had already been dealt with by the sheriff, rather to John's surprise, as Henry de Furnellis rarely exerted himself.Several men were rotting in the cells below the keep until the coroner could get around to taking their confessions, and several accidental deaths needed inquests, based on the depositions that Thomas had recorded earlier.However, the day soon brought some more pressing matters.The first was the arrival of Richard Lustcote, who appeared out of breath at the top of the winding stairs.The coroner sat him on a stool and listened with increasing concern to the apothecary's story.'This victim is another guild master?' he asked with a feeling of foreboding.'One of the best-known weavers in the city,' replied the apothecary.'That is why I feared that this might be another one of those murderous attacks, though thankfully one that failed.''How badly is he injured?'Richard pursed his lips in doubt.'He lost some blood, but the damage is not mortal, unless it turns purulent.It depends on where that damned iron rod had been before it was used.' Feeling in his apothecary's bag, he produced the iron rod and handed it to the coroner.'This is the object that caused his wound - you had better keep it as evidence.'John and Gwyn examined the rusty metal with interest, but came to no conclusion about what it was, other than some crude form of crossbow bolt.De Wolfe scratched his stubble, in dire need of scraping with a sharp knife since he had last shaved in London.'Did you seek the cause of this injury at the house?' he asked.'I mean, the device that fired this thing at the weaver?''I went out to the yard and the privy with his sons, but it was dark and all we had was a candle.I am an apothecary, not a constable.'The coroner accepted this and decided to go and look for himself.The apothecary took himself off to his shop and John went down to Rock Lane with his two acolytes behind him.They found Martha le Batur ministering to her husband with the assistance of another motherly woman who was her maid.Gilbert was on a low truckle bed in the solar, muffled up against the cold air under a pile of blankets.He was pale, which at least seemed to indicate that so far he had no fever from an infection of his wound.When they entered, he struggled to sit up, but he groaned at the pain in his heavily bandaged shoulder and fell back on to his pallet.'What do you recall about this affair?' demanded de Wolfe, sitting on a stool alongside the victim's bed, the wife and elder son hovering anxiously behind him.Gilbert was lucid, though his face was puckered with pain.'Very little, Crowner, it was all over so quickly.I had the urge to visit the privy, as I often do after my supper.I put my hand on the latch and pulled the door open and immediately was struck in the shoulder.'You were lucky it was only your shoulder, father,' said the son.'A few inches to one siide and it would have been your heart.''I have the old elder tree to thank for that,' replied the weaver.'It grew so much last summer that a branch now hangs across the privy door and makes you lean to the side to avoid scratching your head.I was going to cut it down, but now I'll spare it out of gratitude.'Further questions drew out nothing useful, as none of the family members saw or heard anyone lurking about the yard that night [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]